The Edward Novitski Prize
recognizes an extraordinary level of
creativity and intellectual ingenuity in
the solution of significant problems in
genetics research. It honors solid,
significant, scientific experimental
work, either a single experimental
accomplishment or a body of work. The
award recognizes scientific achievement
that stands out from the body of
innovative work, that is deeply
impressive to creative masters in the
field, and that solves a difficult
problem in genetics. It recognizes the
beautiful and intellectually ingenious
experimental design and execution
involved in genetics scientific
discovery.

The Prize was established by the Novitski family and GSA to honor the
memory of Edward Novitski (1918-2006), a
Drosophila geneticist and lifelong GSA
member, who specialized in chromosome
mechanics and elucidating meiosis
through the construction of modified
chromosomes. Novitski was a student of
Alfred Sturtevant, himself a student of
Thomas Hunt Morgan. He was educated at
Purdue University and Caltech and was a
faculty member at the University of
Missouri, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
and the University of Oregon. He
mentored Larry Sandler and Dan Lindsley
among other Drosophila geneticists.
Novitski led by example, tackling
difficult problems using innovative
experimental approaches throughout his
career.

Criteria for Selection:

The Novitski Prize is intended to
recognize a single experimental
accomplishment or a body of work in
which an exceptional level of creativity
and intellectual ingenuity has been used
to design and execute scientific
experiments to solve a difficult problem
in genetics.

The work in question must be
published in peer-reviewed
publications.

The work should be of a high
caliber of creativity that
honors the tradition of notable
experiments of Novitski and his
colleagues.

For example:

The recovery of a lozenge
mutation from inside a short
inversion (Novitski, 1950),
that is described in general
terms in Crow et al. (2006)
and in lay terms in Novitski
(2005, pp. 134-137).

The construction of all
types of compound X
chromosomes (Novitski, 1954)
and compound X and Y
chromosomes (Lindsley and
Novitski, 1950, 1959).

Novitski’s work is briefly
summarized by Crow et al.
(2006).

The work should exhibit the
beauty of intellectual ingenuity
in providing scientific
understanding (Novitski, 2005,
pp. 132-164; 2006).

The recipient must be the
originator of the creative
content of the experiments.

If two individuals are deeply
involved in the creation of an
idea, then they may be
co-recipients of the prize for
that joint work. If there are
more than two individuals who
were key in the creative
process, then only the two
individuals most critical to
that process are eligible for
the Award.

Among qualified candidates, all
candidates (faculty, postdocs,
students) will be treated as
equal peers, evaluated on the
same criteria.

Work done at any time in the
past may be recognized.

A candidate must be alive at the
time the final selection of the
winner is made by the selection
committee.